Report: E.U. Assumes Tehran Will Acquire Nuclear Capability

The European Union has reportedly concluded that Iran cannot be prevented from attaining nuclear weapons capability.

“At some stage we must expect that Iran will acquire the capacity to enrich uranium on the scale required for a weapons program,” Monday’s Financial Times newspaper quoted an internal E.U. document as saying. “The Iranians have pursued their program at their own pace, the limiting factor being technical difficulties rather than resolutions by the U.N. or the International Atomic Energy Agency.”

The apparent admission by a major international bloc that diplomatic efforts to curb Tehran’s atomic ambitions have failed looked likely to fuel calls for pre-emptive military action against Iranian nuclear facilities. Israel and the United States had no immediate comment on the report.